ST. CHARLES, Mo. (KMOV) – Construction crews used explosives to demolish part of the Blanchette Bridge on Sunday, closing all three lanes of the span for an hour.

Crews blasted one section of the bridge's steel truss, dropping 1.5 million pounds of steel into the Missouri River. MoDOT says the contractor now has 48 hours to extract all of the dumped steel from the river.

The blasting closed the bridge for traffic from 10 to 11 a.m. Sunday. MoDOT says more temporary closures are expected over the next few weekends.

Commuters were encouraged to get off Interstate 70 at Route 9, and head towards Route 364, which would take them to Interstate 270. Westbound travelers were detoured off I-70 at Interstate 270.

News 4 will continue to check on the reconstruction process as the Missouri Department of Transportation releases information.